Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JZer]

Anyone have any interesting activities or games for using the present tense?

[tomato]

Hello, JZer!

Here are my favorite ideas:

■ picture books

Any picture book which consists only of simple sentences, and which uses the same subject for every sentence is good. Daddy Sleeps and Pikachu's Day are good for this purpose.

After reading the book once, choose one of the students by going "Eeny meeny miney mo." Then read the book again, substituting the student's name. The students will giggle, giggle, giggle.

To demonstrate the third person plural, choose two students.

I especially like picture books in which each sentence has the same subject, same verb, but different object. I See Colors and I
See Patterns are my favorites. Again, you can extend this activity by going "Eeny meeny miney mo."

There are also a few books which use only one verb but different subjects. On the Go and It's Melting! are good. The latter uses the verb in both third person singular and third person plural. I use this book to show the difference.

■ dice game

Each player needs a pencil and a sheet of paper with a verb conjugation:



Each player takes a turn rolling the die.
The player reads the sentence corresponding to the roll of the die, then crosses off the sentence.
The winner is the first player to get all six sentences crossed out.

■ bingo game

A set of bingo boards and display cards takes hours to make, but it is well worth the effort.
I made a verb bingo set from pictures in Jack Kent's Hop, Skip, and Jump Book, but you could do the same through a Google search.
Besides teaching the present tense, you can use the same bingo set for teaching all other tenses.

■ personalize

Ask questions like "Do you have a ball?" and "Do you walk to school?"
From this informal survey, make up sentences in third person singular and third person plural, such as "Bob has a ball" and "Suzy and Debby walk to school."

If the class is uninhibited, practice saying these sentences in a loud voice, in a soft voice, in a high voice, in a low voice, and various other silly ways.

I hope this helps.